1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a backspin toy, and more particularly, to a backspin toy configured to impart backspin to a flywheel rotatably provided to a vehicle so that once the vehicle is catapulted forward from a stand and reaches the limit of its forward motion, the backspin imparted to the flywheel causes the vehicle to run backward and return to the stand.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, toys are known that catapult a vehicle from a ramp, or transmit torque from a flywheel to a drive wheel or wheels of the toy vehicle, or use the flywheel itself as the drive wheel.
For example, Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. S52-009586-U discloses a toy that applies torque to the flywheel of a wheeled vehicle placed on a starting stand, which then applies that torque to the wheels. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. S62-298389-A discloses a catapult device that applies torque to a flywheel-type drive mechanism coupled to the wheels of a toy car and catapults the car from a ramp. Further, Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. H08-005758-U discloses rotating a flywheel of a wheeled toy placed on a catapult device and catapulting the toy.
However, although S52-009586-U provides a flywheel that applies inertial torque to the wheels of a wheeled vehicle that slides down a sloped runway for the purpose of making the wheeled vehicle run farther, the wheeled vehicle does not exhibit backspin.
Although S62-298389-A discloses storing torque in the flywheel-type drive mechanism coupled to the wheels of the toy car and then operating a catapult mechanism to launch the toy car with drive from the drive wheels generated by torque applied from the drive mechanism so that the speed of the toy car does not diminish rapidly, the toy car does not exhibit backspin.
Moreover, although H08-005758-U discloses a configuration in which the flywheel itself is the drive wheel, thus achieving high initial speed and stable take-off, the flywheel itself does not exhibit backspin.
All the approaches described above use the drive force of a flywheel to catapult a vehicle forward at high speed and make the vehicle go farther. None of these approaches, however, employs backspin.